In the 1940s and 1950s, the Cleveland Browns were one of the most dominant teams in pro football history, reaching the championship game for 10 straight years (1946-55, including four AAFC seasons and six NFL seasons) and winning seven titles.
Since the Browns returned to the NFL in 1999, they have been one of the most inept, poorly managed, and poorly coached teams in NFL history.
The Browns are currently coached by Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski is a young coach, and maybe he will develop into a great coach, but coaches younger than he is now (40) have won Super Bowls--including Mike Tomlin of the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, Jon Gruden (then with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and, most recently, Sean McVay of the L.A. Rams.
Let's just say that right now Stefanski does not appear to be on the fast track to becoming a Super Bowl-winning coach.
A fundamental part of NFL success is understanding situational football, meaning that the coaching staff instructs the players how to make decisions and plays that maximize the opportunity for success in any given situation.
I have been watching NFL football since the 1970s, I have been a Cleveland Browns fan for that entire time, and it pains me to say that the last time that the Cleveland Browns consistently understood the concept of situational football was when Bill Belichick coached the team in the 1990s. That era ended unceremoniously in 1995 when Browns' owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore and fired Belichick. You could fill a wing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame just with coaches fired by Modell: start with Paul Brown, then add Marty Schottenheimer (who had a Hall of Fame caliber career but has not yet been inducted), and finish with Belichick, who won six Super Bowls after being dumped by Modell.
Sunday's debacle versus the New York Jets is just the latest example of the Browns snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Browns led 24-17 and had the ball deep inside the Jets' territory with the fourth quarter clock winding down to the two minute mark. The Jets had no timeouts left, so the Browns were one first down and a few kneeldowns away from victory. Kareem Hunt took a handoff with 2:09 left, but instead of making sure that he stayed inbounds so that the clock would run all the way down to the two minute warning he fought for meaningless extra yards and ended up going out of bounds with 2:02 left. The goal of the next play should have been obvious: gain yardage if possible but above all don't fumble--and don't score, because the only way that the Jets could win is by getting the ball back. Instead, Nick Chubb raced around the left side of the offensive line and run into the end zone. The Browns now led 30-17 with 1:55 left. What could go wrong?
Here is the list (in addition to the miscues by Hunt and Chubb, the two plays that made all of the ensuing mayhem possible):
1) Cade York missed the extra point.
2) The Browns blew a coverage and gave up a 66 yard touchdown pass.
3) Onside kicks are rarely successful, but the Browns mishandled the ball and the Jets recovered (this is not new for the Browns; they also failed to recover an onside kick in week 14 versus the Ravens last season, but won anyway because the defense saved the day).
4) The Jets marched down the field in six plays, never needing a single third down conversion before scoring a 15 yard touchdown pass with :22 remaining.
5) The Browns still had a chance to win by reaching field goal range, and they have a kicker who made a 58 yard game-winning field goal last week (although he also had just missed an extra point)--but when the Browns were just one medium-range pass completion away from entering field goal range, quarterback Jacoby Brissett threw an interception. The Jets did not try to score a touchdown on the interception return, instead kneeling down to seal the victory.
How rare is it for an NFL team to blow a lead of at least 13 points with less than two minutes remaining? The last 2229 teams to enjoy such leads won the game. Not surprisingly, the previous team to blow such a lead was the Cleveland Browns in 2001 versus the Chicago Bears. When it mattered most versus the Jets, the Browns repeatedly failed to understand situational football and to execute fundamental plays, including kneeling down to keep the clock running, making an extra point, making sure that no defensive back is beaten deep with a two score lead with less than two minutes remaining, recovering an onside kick, getting one defensive stop, and running a two-minute drill to get into field goal range. If the Browns' special teams, defense, or offense understood situational football then the team would not have made so many plays that were not only bad but stupid. Situational football is all about what the coaches teach and how well they teach it. A well-coached team might lose but a well-coached team will not beat itself.
The Browns have had some awful teams since 1999 that simply did not have enough good players to be competitive no matter who coached them (though the coaches were generally awful, too), but even when the Browns have had reasonably talented teams (like they have now) they are done in by their own ineptitude.
After the loss to the Jets, Stefanski said that it is his responsibility to tell Chubb to kneel down before the play--but that comment just shows that even in the postgame press conference Stefanski still missed the point; this is not something to figure out or discuss in the heat of the moment: this is what you are supposed to be practicing and thinking about repeatedly, so that when situations arise the whole team understands what the correct play is.
ESPN's NFL Rewind show contrasted the Browns' meltdown with the end of the Patriots-Steelers game. The Patriots knew to kneel down, run out the clock, and win 17-14. As a Browns fan, it is great to see the Steelers lose, but every time Belichick's Patriots execute sound situational football I think about how many Super Bowls the Browns might have won if there had been a way to get rid of Modell, keep Belichick, and keep the team in Cleveland.
In his postgame press conference, Stefanski mentioned that the Browns are a young team. I cannot recall Belichick ever using that excuse--or any other excuse--after a loss. Steelers' coach Mike Tomlin often says, "The standard is the standard." In Pittsburgh, the standard has been three coaches in the Super Bowl era (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin), each of whom has won at least one Super Bowl. It does not take 20 years--or even five years--to build a Super Bowl contender if you know what you are doing. The great Bill Walsh took over an inept San Francisco team and won a Super Bowl three years later, which he considered to be the standard: "I am often asked how long it should take to turn an NFL franchise around. My short answer is: three years. Not every team will win the Super Bowl in its third season under a new coach (as we did in San Francisco in 1981) but it is reasonable to expect at least some signs of improvement by that time...There are reasons why some teams are able to remain competitive year after year while others never seem to get over the hump...My point is that it takes a concerted commitment from ownership, the front office, the coaching staff and the players for a team to succeed. It's the old 'a-chain-is-only-as-strong-as-its-weakest-link-theory' theory. If one of the four areas is weak, it's extremely difficult to overcome that flaw." Notice that Walsh's blueprint does not include tanking, which has been proven to not work in the NBA, and is not effective (or necessary) in the NFL.
The Browns are approaching a quarter century of historic ineptitude (including a three season run of 3-13, 1-15, and 0-16) briefly interrupted by just two playoff appearances and a single playoff win. In a league designed with parity as the goal, this is disgraceful and inexcusable.
2 comments:
It's no secret the Browns have been a bad franchise for awhile now and I see some of your points. No doubt on some of them and obviously an epic loss. In hindsight, sure, Chubb shouldn't have scored that last TD. But, there's very few players who wouldn't. You're taught to fight for every yard and score TDs. Scoring TDs remain winning plays, that's not why the Browns lost the game. The Jets weren't letting him score either. If there's anyone to blame, it's the O-line for doing such a great job. Or the coach, even with 2:02 left, just kneel. Then 2:00, then kneel 2 more times and kick a short FG. There'd be no more than 30 seconds left. Even if it's missed, the Jets have to go about 75-80 yards with no timeouts left just to tie pending the PAT. But stranger things have happened and many teams have been bitten by being ultra-conservative before. We can look at the Jets too for not letting Chubb score that last TD, because they should've been.
There's nothing wrong with the play at 2:09 that Hunt went out of bounds on. They weren't meaningless yards. He got the first down which was big-that's a game sealer right there or should've been. It's hard not to go out of bounds sometimes and he was trying to go down inbounds after he got the 1st down. The blown coverage on the 66 yard TD and the onside kick failure were the problems. The former being the by far the biggest problem. Even playing super safe, there's not enough time to score 2 TDs even with failing to get the onside kick. The INT by Brissett had to be forced with such little time left and nobody was open. If he throws it away, there's probably about 6 seconds left. There's probably not enough time to get 15 yards in 5 seconds or less, just to get that 55-58 yard FG attempt.
Hard to know in hindsight, but Belichick wasn't winning much with the Browns. The Browns had reached the playoffs 5 of the previous 6 seasons before he was head coach. He starts off with 3 losing seasons. I doubt many coaches would remain in charge if that happened. Then has one good season, then back to being bad in his 5th and final season. 36-44 overall. Who knows about Stefanski, but he took over a team in 2020 that had had 12 consecutive losing seasons and hadn't made the playoffs since 2002. He goes 11-5 and makes the playoffs. Then, 8-9 and 1-1 since. 20-15 overall.
Anonymous:
The point is not how many players would kneel down as opposed to scoring a TD; winning teams play situational football, so players on winning teams that play situational football would kneel down. Chubb actually did that in a game earlier in his career. The problem is that the Browns do not practice situational football often enough for it to be second nature, and that is a big difference between the Browns and teams that consistently win.
The Jets not letting him score suggests that they don't understand situational football, either, but that is not the topic here.
The Browns' offensive line is supposed to block and clear a hole. Chubb and Hunt are supposed to know to stay in bounds and not score after gaining as many yards as possible.
I agree that Hunt's play was not as bad as Chubb's, and you are right that Hunt did a good job to get a first down. However, he should not have been running toward the sideline. As one standalone play that would not be a big deal, but as my article points out this is part of a bigger picture of a team that has not consistently played good situational football for decades.
The blown coverage and messed up onside kick coverage are bigger issues than Hunt's play, but each flawed play is an example of a Browns unit not understanding or executing situational football. When you are up by two scores, there is no excuse for getting beat deep by 15-20 yards. That is just basic situational football.
Brissett's play was not the worst one of the bunch but, again, if he does not throw the interception then the team has at least one more play--you could get pass interference, a long completion. Again, situational football means doing what you can play by play to maximize your chance to win.
Saying that the Browns had reached the playoffs five of the previous six years before Belichick arrived without providing any context is similar to saying that the Chicago Bulls won six of eight championships prior to 1999 so why were they so bad in 1999?
The players who took the Browns to the playoffs were either gone or over the hill by the time Belichick took over, and the season before he arrived the Browns went 3-13. Under Belichick, the Browns went 6-10, 7-9, 7-9, and 11-5 before Modell decided to move the team. Belichick led the Browns to the 1994 playoffs, where they beat the Bill Parcells-led New England Patriots before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Belichick's coaching staff with the Browns included Nick Saban (who later became perhaps the greatest college football coach ever), Ozzie Newsome (who later became a Super Bowl-winning general manager), and a host of other coaches who later had success. Belichick was building a program like the one he later built in New England. Granted, he did not have a Tom Brady, but I believe that under his direction the Browns would have been a perennial playoff team and a Super Bowl contender. That was the trend line before Modell messed things up. Belichick won 10 games with Matt Cassell as a starter in New England after Brady got hurt, so the notion that Belichick can't win anything without Brady does not hold water.
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